In 2017, the NHL held its first expansion draft in quite some time. With Seattle set to enter the league in a few years, teams will once again have to prepare for another expansion draft, this time in 2021.
It’ll be a little different for the Flames, though: in 2017, they didn’t have too many good players who needed protecting (hence why Curtis Lazar was one of their protected forwards, and they legitimately didn’t have any better options at the time). In 2021, they probably will – and that means they may very well lose a good player for nothing.